If I’d Just Stand Still, I Might Be Able to Catch Up

It’s the Bermuda Bag Blunder all over again.

You know?   Those purses that had changeable covers but were completely impractical in every other way? They were all the rage when I was a kid, and I begged my mother for two years to get me one.

And she did.

And I went to school with it. And no one else had one. No one else even had a purse.  They had moved on.  Back to where I started.  And it could have saved my mom some money if we had just stayed there.

But since she spent all that money, I had to use the purse.

Don’t you wish you had one, too?
photo credit: http://www.liketotally80s.com/bermuda-bag.html

Now my purse is a refrigerator.

When we moved into our first house, our kitchen appliances were mixed. Some were black and some were white. We bought a brand new white refrigerator, and spent the next five years slowly replacing the other appliances to match. By the time we got them all matched, it was time to move.

And we moved to a house with black appliances – which really didn’t complement our pure white refrigerator. No matter.  Because, by this time, white was so yesterday and stainless steel was the rage.

Our white refrigerator died. (Natural causes, I say.  And I’m sticking to it.)  Stainless steel or black, we asked ourselves. My husband was leaning toward stainless steel. But I was hesitant. I didn’t want to be Bermudaed again. I mean, stainless had been the rage for awhile now. It was getting time for a new trend.  I could feel it.

But I could not find any record of the new trend anywhere. So, we joined the masses, and bought our stainless steel fridge. And we are slowly getting the rest of the kitchen stainless.  Of course, we have to wait until they die, too.  I mean, you wouldn’t replace your grandmother while she was still alive just because she was the wrong color, would you?

Okay, that didn’t really sound right, but I’m not sure how to fix it.

Anyway, this morning, there happened to be a news report on appliance trends – specifically, refrigerators.

“Stainless is going out, ” they said.

The new trend?

The old one – white.

“Like iPhones!” was the reasoning.

Now why didn’t I see that one coming?

Someone needs to invent a Bermuda Refrigerator.

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Love is a Two-Lane Farm to Market Road

I figured out the main difference between my husband and myself.  I am a go-in-a- straight-line-or-as-close-as-possible-even-if-I-have-to-keep-stopping person, and he is a go-the-opposite-direction-if-it-looks-better-even-if-it-takes-longer person.

I don’t know if I started out this way, but I have definitely refined the ability to measure any situation and find the most direct route through it or to it.  It bothers me to meander.  I don’t mean it is just slightly annoying.  I mean that I get a rising sense of panic as we wander farther and farther from our direct path.  I have to remind myself that it would not be socially or matrimonially acceptable for me to start yelling that we need to turn around and follow the route that I have mentally mapped.  Ironically, I don’t actually have a sense of direction, yet my whole body screams if it even suspects I might be headed the wrong way.

When I say, “Honey, are you sure want to go this way?” that isn’t what I really mean.

My husband, however, would much rather take the scenic route.  If there are less billboards, semis, and lanes on the road, he’s there.  Time is never a factor.

I’m not just talking about driving.  Apparently these philosophies metaphorically extend themselves to the other aspects of our lives.  Whenever we need to make a major decision about a purchase, for example, I mentally identify the key factors involved, research them, and make a decision.  My husband, however, thinks of details that have never occurred to me, and thoroughly weighs them, often for an agonizingly long time.

Case in point – our recent refrigerator purchase.  I researched reviews of how noisy, economical, and spacious each one might be.  Armed with my computer printouts and my iPad (just in case I needed to do research on the fly), I led my husband to the floor model I had chosen.  The Yin to my Yang took one look at the door handles of the “perfect one”, and reflected doubtfully on how well they matched those of our other recently acquired appliance, the ice maker.  “Matching door handles” not being one of the categories I could actually research on Consumer Reports, you see.

We got a different refrigerator.

Despite my frustration at moments like this, I have to admit that this personality mismatch seems to work.  Sometimes, I bluster my way through things much too quickly.  And sometimes, he gets distracted by minor details for much too long.

But, most of the time, I help him to focus on what’s important – our final goal.  And he helps me to remember to live in the moment.

Now  I can look upon our new refrigerator and be grateful that it doesn’t clash with the ice maker.  Thank God he saved me from that disaster.